Pastors as leftist shills?

Dave Welch is the founder and executive director of the U.S. Pastor Council and Houston Area Pastor Council, interdenominational and interracial ministries of and for pastors based in Houston, Texas. Over the past 24 years, he has held numerous leadership positions including founding executive director of Christian Coalition of Washington, national field director of Christian Coalition and executive director of Vision America.

Once again the Texas State Board of Education has erupted into the national news scene, this time by considering a resolution shedding light on anti-Christian bias in some history textbooks. Such bias is old news to anyone following the direction of the government education complex over the past 40 years. However, once again Texas can serve as a counterbalance simply due to the volume of its textbook purchases.

Compared to its peers of California and New York, it is also the only large state with any remaining conservative philosophy present at the decision-making level. Hence, the only reason for the attention to the battles in Texas is because a battle is present at all.

The conservative members of the board are essentially serving as the Alamo for the nation’s children in government schools. As usual, the Texas Freedom Network (founded by Planned Parenthood of America Federation president Cecile Richards), Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the ACLU were present and protesting loudly that the resolution and its claims are “political.” It’s always political when you disagree with the Left.

They say the board should stick to education because, of course, these liberal, anti-Christian organizations are truly interested in quality, accurate and excellent education for our children, right? Right. However, I expect this of these groups because I know who they are.

Once again, my guns are aimed at the pathetic preachers, pitiful pastors and compromised clergy that TFN, AU, ACLU and their ilk trot out as props for their leftist agendas. They disgust me. Their list of “nearly 100 religious leaders from Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths” who signed a letter opposing the resolution represents a tiny cadre of liberals who have all rejected the fundamentals of their own faiths.

Among them are “Rev. Larry Bethune, senior pastor at University Baptist Church in Austin; Rev. Bobbi Kaye Jones, district superintendent of the Austin District of the United Methodist Church; and Rabbi Neil Blumofe of the Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin.” Liberal, liberal and liberal.

These same clergy are used by these groups to support abortion on demand, sexual diversity, same-sex marriage, secularized education, cleansing the public square of biblical Christianity, etc. What we have to realize is that if conservative, Bible-believing pastors do not engage and contend with them, they are left as the de facto voice of the church.

Not on my watch, and fortunately we have increasing numbers of pastors who are stepping into the fray. With that said, we are not enough and there are still too many sitting safely in their pastor’s study letting others take the bullets for them. Others like Terri Leo, David Bradley, Don McLeroy, Ken Mercer, Gail Lowe, Barbara Cargill and Cynthia Dunbar – the “Magnificent Seven” who voted to adopt this resolution (on a seven-to-six margin) and who will certainly again be vilified by the media, education elites and the sorry excuse for clergy mentioned above.

It was my joy to testify at the hearing and represent the hundreds of “real” pastors around this state we speak for as well as all those who share our values but have not yet suited up for the game. What I am reminded every time I attend a meeting of an elected body is the significant influence that comes just with showing up. Far too often, it is not those with an interest of putting government back in its biblical and constitutional restraints who do so.

My challenge to you every pastor today is to not let one more battle go by and wish you had done something. Don’t let one more baby be murdered through abortion, one more attack against God’s design of marriage, one more assault on religious freedom and free speech, one more grievance against private property and freedom pass without your voice.

The wave of national course correction that is rising through the tea parties will have its impact – but let the church arise with boldness, courage, humility and determination so it will no longer be said of us:

Woe, shepherds of Israel … You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. (Ezekiel 34:1-6)

This victory in Texas was again a victory for the nation. However, the government still controls the education of most of the nation’s children, and the religious and antireligious secularists are not going away.